[DRAFT] nocodb: init at 0.84.1

[onny]

Motivation for this change

Packages nocodb web app and fixes #153512

Things done

• Built on platform(s)
  • x86_64-linux
  • aarch64-linux
  • x86_64-darwin
  • aarch64-darwin
• For non-Linux: Is sandbox = true set in nix.conf? (See Nix manual)
• Tested, as applicable:
  • NixOS test(s) (look inside nixos/tests)
  • and/or package tests
  • or, for functions and "core" functionality, tests in lib/tests or pkgs/test
  • made sure NixOS tests are linked to the relevant packages
• Tested compilation of all packages that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review rev HEAD". Note: all changes have to be committed, also see nixpkgs-review usage
• Tested basic functionality of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• 22.05 Release Notes (or backporting 21.11 Release notes)
  • (Package updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is major or breaking
  • (Module updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is significant
  • (Module addition) Added a release notes entry if adding a new NixOS module
  • (Release notes changes) Ran nixos/doc/manual/md-to-db.sh to update generated release notes
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

[onny]

Not sure yet on how to run the backend and frontend servers. Backend server should be present at:

/nix/store/[...]-nocodb-0.84.1/lib/node_modules/nocodb/packages/nocodb

According to package.json the run command will execute:

ts-node src/example/docker

Where src/example/docker.ts is a typescript file. Should we run it with ts-node?

Is anyone familiar with this? @SuperSandro2000 @happysalada @aanderse

[happysalada]

It seems they run ts-node in dev mode to have automatic refresh.

their dockerfile however references a main.js
https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb/blob/master/packages/nocodb/Dockerfile#L28
Since main.js is not included in the repo, there is a possibility it's built by the project. If after building the project it's still not there, then I would try using node with docker/index.js which seem to do the same as the docker.ts file.

[onny]

I'm able to compile and run it in ArchLinux:

pacman -S ts-node
git clone https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb
cd nocodb
# run backend
cd packages/nocodb
npm install
ts-node src/example/docker --log-error --project tsconfig.json

The daemon is listening on :8080

I would like to test this on NixOS but unfortunately the ts-node program is not yet ready on NixOS

[SuperSandro2000]

I think this could also be part of nodePackages.

[onny]

I think this could also be part of nodePackages.

I tried it, added nocodb to node-packages.json file. After successfull build, there is no binary in ./result/bin. Not exactly sure if its a possible way to build this package?

[happysalada]

if I remember correctly it's not ad simple as that.
nocodb had many subpackages (in the repo).
a brief check on the npm package doesn't mention a binary https://www.npmjs.com/package/nocodb
We will have to check further how this can be used.

[l5r]

I managed to package it for myself by writing a small wrapper application

[onny]

I managed to package it for myself by writing a small wrapper application

Thats cool :) Are you planning to open a pull request for this?

[DamienCassou]

Does anyone still care about this? The PR has conflicts and must be rebased.

[jlbribeiro]

I managed to package it for myself by writing a small wrapper application

To add to this conversation (and to keep this PR alive), @l5r's wrapper app is distributed as nocodb/nocodb-seed and briefly mentioned in NocoDB's README. Not sure how up-to-date nocodb/nocodb-seed is kept in relation to nocodb, so it might be worth just packaging the "seed" app along the package definition (like @l5r did) since it would provide greater control over the versioning.
But, like @SuperSandro2000 mentioned, nocodb could probably be in nodePackages as well?

[SuperSandro2000]

It should be an extra package using buildNpmPackage if possible. Generating nodePackages is a terrible task because it is so big, takes forever and has no caching or parallism.